Analogue Insulins

The correction to the last E-News is enclosed. The fast acting insulin referred to is Apidra, not the basal insulin Levemir. Sorry about that. Thanks to you all who quickly picked up the error.

All patients with diabetes 1 require insulin therapy and the majority (90%-95%) of patients with diabetes 2 will require insulin therapy within 6-10 years of diagnosis. Recently the development of analogues has been a tremendous advance in the field of insulin therapy.

Recently we have had the introduction of new insulins that closely mimic the basal and bolus insulin normal patterns. Almost like the normal pancreas would do. This allows greater flexibility for personal life without forfeiting control.

Lantus and Levemir are the two basal insulins and the fast acting insulins until recently have been Humalog and Novolog. These have been much improved insulin preparations.

Now we have Apidra, the fastest acting over all and therefore better than the rest.

We will go over all these preparations in the next few days to give you an idea of what is best for you.